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One of the amazing benefits of working with so many wonderful clients is simply getting to know you and your incredible stories.

The Community
This happens all the time, and my business—whether I’m doing photography, video production, or digital design—is based on telling stories…so I love hearing my clients’ stories and I want to create a platform to share them. A huge project I’ll be incorporating into the entire Moser Visuals Network in the future is developing a community with so many incredible features for all of you. I’ll share more information about this after the new year, but it is exciting news and I can’t wait to unveil it!

Part of the new community is this idea of sharing incredible client stories. For now, I’ll call each one a Community Featured Story. The first one features the incredible story of the Roberts family. If you want me to tell your story, consider becoming a client of any one of the Moser Visuals Network companies: Moser Visuals, Knoxville Portraits, or Knox Wedding Photo + Video!

*Editor’s Note: The original graphic published with this article referenced the Roberts family as being from Alabama, not Mississippi, as the updated and correct graphic now reflects.

The Roberts family claims they are just an ordinary family of four from Southern Mississippi, but after reading their story, you might claim otherwise. Their family includes Greg and Michelle (the parents), Dustin and Ashton (the two natural-born kids), and Isaac (their adopted Haitian son). I asked Michelle to tell their story, and these are her words:

Our Background
Back in 2003-04, Greg met a wonderful pastor named Ghuna Kamar when he served on a mission team from Mississippi. They quickly became friends and served the Lord together with Pastor Ghuna’s ministry “Gospel Friends”. Now—after many trips to India—”Gospel Friends” is a permanent ministry for our entire church family.

In 2005, God opened the doors in Tennessee and provided us opportunities to serve in many ways. Little did we know that in many small ways, God led us to bigger and better opportunities that we never imagined! Greg led his first mission team to India in 2006-07, and has had a passion for serving others in need around the world for as long as I can remember.

Myself on the other hand, not so much. My securities lied in what I could see. Don’t get me wrong, I trusted and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ—just not for everything! It’s really hard to comprehend the thought of walking away from everything you know and find secure, and really living by faith and trusting God will provide.

Haiti + Chadasha
In 2008-09, Greg was asked to go to Haiti and serve with a wonderful group of men from the Chadasha Foundation. We never expected what happened next, and never in a million years did we think we would fall in love with a people so far and so different from what we considered normal.

While in Haiti, Greg was able to see God provide in so many ways. From providing sick people with medical treatment to providing dying people with life-saving surgeries, Greg was in awe of what he experienced. In these times of serving in Haiti, friendships were formed and hearts were being transformed. I’ll never forget the day he came home and gathered up the family, to pray about what our next step would be in serving the Lord. After lots of praying and serious conversations with the kids on how they felt, what happened next was truly unbelievable.

The Earthquake
On January 12, 2010, and incredibly devastating earthquake struck Haiti, and made the Haitian side of the island almost desolate. Being uncertain of the relationships and people we had come to love, a small team formed to immediately help in Haiti. This is where our biggest adventures came to life! God placed many amazing people in the paths of great men of God, and the things that happened over the next few months could only be summed up as “God provides.”

We believed—through what we experienced in Haiti—that God wanted us to serve there. In March of 2010, God moved our entire family to Haiti.

The Blessings of Haitian Missions
In the two-and-a-half years we have served in Haiti, we have been honored to be a part of adopting a little boy named Isaac, starting many English and Bible classes in multiple tent camps, and so much more. There is such a hunger there for learning more about Jesus Christ and English.

In just a couple weeks, the numbers would quickly grow from 10-20 students on the first day of classes to 100-200. This was amazing to witness the transformations of everyone—including us. We have been able to provide for children (whose parents did not have the means to care for them) and establish a safe and loving place to live. Through faith, God provided three meals a day, schooling, and even new parents for all the children in our care.

We have been also been blessed with two wonderful houses for serving. One of them is a guest house for teams coming in to serve Haiti and was once used as a headquarters for people around the world after the devastating earthquake.

Next Step: The Orphanage Retreat Center
One day while visiting the beaches on the coast line, we watched kids play in the water like it was their first time. After talking with the people watching kids, we found out they were volunteers serving with an orphanage nearby. When the orphanage has volunteers, they would bring them to the beach to play.

After Greg and I talked and prayed about it, God gave us a vision for an Orphanage Retreat Center. A place where orphanages can bring their children for a free to be fed the Word of God and have fun. The workers of the orphanages could have time to spend with their families and return to the orphanage refreshed and ready to serve each other better. Now, we have a piece of property, a plan, and will be ground-breaking on the incredible project soon.

This is just another example of “God provides.”

What a wonderful, amazing, and inspiring story. I’m truly blessed to have the clients I do, and I really treasure each and every story that I get to tell. Thank you for being such a blessing, Greg, Michelle, Dustin, Ashton, and Isaac!